Best products from r/nosurf

We found 36 comments on r/nosurf discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 45 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

4. Topo Comfort Mat by Ergodriven | The Not-Flat Standing Desk Anti-Fatigue Mat with Calculated Terrain | Standing Desk Mat | Comfortable Standing Mat | Office Mat | Desk Accessories | Obsidian Black

    Features:
  • THE BEST STANDING DESK MAT: Topo is the first anti-fatigue mat designed specifically for standing desks. It boasts premium comfort mat material and patented next-generation terrain features. That’s why it’s been The Wirecutter’s top pick since 2016.
  • SIT LESS AND STAND BETTER: Spend more time out of your chair and move more while you stand, with Topo’s meticulously designed ergonomic topography. Our infinite possible micro and macro movements provide a plethora of new and dynamic positions.
  • IMPROVE YOUR MOVEMENT WITHOUT EVEN THINKING: Topo’s cushioned terrain drives subconscious movement, stretching, and massage - unlike distracting balance boards and treadmills.
  • MAKE THE MOVE TO STANDING EASIER: You can reposition Topo with just one foot, unlike normal anti-fatigue mats designed for kitchens. Grab Topo’s unique indentation with your heel or toe to pull the mat out from under your desk. Then just push forward to slide it back.
  • GET THE TRUE BENEFIT OF STANDING: Topo will leave you feeling energized and productive, because the more you move, the better you feel. You’ll buy in confidence thanks to Topo’s 7-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100% full-refund satisfaction guarantee.
Topo Comfort Mat by Ergodriven | The Not-Flat Standing Desk Anti-Fatigue Mat with Calculated Terrain | Standing Desk Mat | Comfortable Standing Mat | Office Mat | Desk Accessories | Obsidian Black
▼ Read Reddit mentions

Top comments mentioning products on r/nosurf:

u/Dude4445 · 4 pointsr/nosurf

I don't typically talk about my interest in "no surf" with my IRL friends but it actually came up this weekend.

One of our friends was using too much data so they deleted Facebook and Instagram from their phone. She has been without the apps for one week but commented on how much less she checked her phone. About 6 months ago, my wife also deleted Facebook from her phone and her usage has declined significantly. She still has the Instagram app and will mindlessly scroll for 30 minutes after work. I'm trying to get her to change this.

I told everyone what I did to reduce my usage of SM. So, if I were creating a step-by-step guide to using less social media it would be this:

1. Get a password manager and auto-generate a new password for all social media accounts. Make your "Master Password" extremely cumbersome (but memorable). My "Master Password" is like 40-50 characters in length. Personally, I use LastPass but I know there are other, possibly better, alternatives. I don't even know my Facebook, Instagram or Twitter passwords.

2. Delete the apps from your phone. This is the key step. If you are one button press from a social media dopamine hit it's going to be damn near impossible to stop yourself. Acknowledge that you don't have that much self-control and just delete the apps.

3. Only login to your accounts on the browser. Delete your browser history every night which will force you to log back in manually.

Those 3 steps will help a lot. I haven't had the social media apps for about the last 2 years and if you're anything like me your interest in them will disappear in a matter of a few weeks (2-4 maybe). Once you're out of the social media loop you might not have any desire to re-engage on a significant level.

Some smaller tips would be:

4. Make an effort to stay in contact with people via texting/messaging and set up IRL events/gatherings. FOMO is real but can be mitigated by doing something. Don't quit SM and sit around your house alone. Make plans to meetup with people, learn something new (cooking, guitar, studying, whatever interests you) or get out and exercise.

5. Go silent. Turn off vibrate and sound notifications. This makes it easier to check your phone when you want and not get caught responding to every buzz or ding. I noticed that the constant email alerts would sometimes cause me to delete the email but then immediately check another app. If I didn't get alerted to the email, I would have avoided picking my phone up all together.

6. Get rid of some SM "friends." Personally, I ask myself "If I saw this person in a grocery store would I go out of my way to spend 5-10 minutes talking to them?" If I say "no" they get removed from my friends list. I went from ~ 1,000 Facebook friends to about 150. Instagram, I'm even more ruthless because I ask "would I be excited to receive a Xmas Card from this person?" This has left me with ~70 Instagram friends. The effect is the SM pages have less information to send your way.

The result is that never-ending page gets less interesting and your desire to spend time there diminishes. These sites know this too. Whenever you "Unfriend" people on Facebook the site will guilt trip you the next time you log onto the page. They realize that "Unfriending" or deleting contacts is the first step towards leaving the platform altogether.

7. Rearrange the icons on your phone periodically. I have a bi-weekly calendar reminder to move non-essential icons around. I never move the phone, camera, alarm clock, texting or email apps. I use them way too often and don't want to search for them. Everything else is rearranged that way I can't "auto-pilot" myself directly to apps that waste my time, such as Feedly, Google News, Yahoo Sports, ESPN, etc. This isn't necessarily SM related but I noticed that when I first got rid of Facebook/Instagram/Twitter apps I filled the void by reading more news/using other apps.

I will typically go on SM for ~10 minutes a week. I never use Twitter anymore. Facebook usually get a quick glance (2 minutes). I spend about 5 minutes quickly looking at photos on Instagram. I never really got that into Snapchat so I never waste time sending snaps. I will look at the ones I receive as they come in. I get maybe 8 a week so this takes a total of ~3 minutes/week.

As an aside, I want to point out the book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles During. Not geared towards tech habits like the recommended reading but I think it's a good entry point into the realm of behavior change. Really easy to read and available at practically every library. The audiobook is ~8 hours long and usually available on OverDrive. The book really emphasizes how making a change to our habits is quite difficult but gets progressively easier. The website for the book has a few good resources as well.

One point that really hit home for me was the idea of "Keystone Habits". The premise is that some habits are so powerful that they can cascade into a positive feedback loop making many other positive habits easier. I've noticed that when I practice good "screen hygiene" I am able to cascade this into more productivity and better overall satisfaction at the end of a day. I'm thinking of making a few subtle changes to "force" myself to practice better screen time habits. It's a work in-progress for myself but I'll report back after I make some adjustments (analog alarm clock, ObiHai home phone).

tl;dr: YOU CANNOT DEPEND ON WILLPOWER. Use your current motivation to put barriers in place for when you lack willpower. Use the current "can-do" attitude to institute good habits that become second nature.

u/jeremiah50 · 8 pointsr/nosurf

I have been asked by greyrocks1 to present here my mindfulness-based approach to smartphone use known as ‘Checking Out’.

Searching vs Checking


Let me begin by saying that a moderate approach to smartphone use doesn’t mean getting rid of your phone, it just means learning to use your phone wisely and with mindfulness.

I have found that the key to doing this is to be aware of your state of mind before you pick up your phone. As I began to practice this I realized that there were basically two states of mind or motivations that were causing me to pick up my phone.

The first state of mind is a purposeful one, where I am seeking specific information or content to be used for a very clear and actionable purpose, usually one that connects me to my non-digital world This state of mind usually leads to a behaviour I call ‘searching’. As I define it, searching isn't a prolonged activity, it's not the same as surfing. It's a quick get what I need and get off type of thing.

  • Examples of searching: finding out what the weather is so I know how to dress, looking up the location or hours of a restaurant or store, messaging a friend, comparing prices on a lawnmower I need to buy, corresponding with a business client, etc

    The second state of mind is one characterized by feelings like boredom, loneliness, anxiety and depression. When I pick up my phone under the influence of this second state of mind I have no clear idea of what I want to find, I just want something that will make me feel better and chase this negative feeling away. This usually leads to a behaviour I call ‘checking’.

  • Examples of checking: checking facebook, checking reddit, checking the news, checking instagram etc.

    When all's said and done I rarely regret the time I spend on my phone searching for something specific (and not just anything specific, but something actionable that connects me with my real world). This is because while I am searching I have purpose and I am actively seeking to accomplish something. But I can’t say the same thing for checking. If I pull out my phone because I am bored and I watch videos or read content for an hour to make myself feel better, I usually end up feeling worse after the fact. It’s like when you eat too much sweets or fast-food. The gratification is only temporary.

    For this reason I believe that the secret to having a healthy relationship with your smartphone is to always be mindful and aware of your state of mind before you use your phone. Basically I want you to ask yourself whether you intend on searching or checking. If you plan to make a purposeful search, then full speed ahead. If you plan on checking, put down your phone and do something else.

    A further reason to avoid this checking is that it is increasingly coming to light that it is specifically this ‘checking behavior’ that is being targeted by programmers and developers to get us to use their sites longer. Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, has been the chief whistleblower in this regard. He has given numerous interviews and talks describing how developers and programmers are turning our phones into little slot machines. Every time we get a notification or hear a ding we feel a little dopamine rush as we reach to check it. And with their store of data and potentially endless source of ‘test patients’, social media companies are learning to harness the dopamine in our brains more effectively all the time.

    Though some have sought to bring change to the social media companies themselves on this matter, in a world where everyone is competing fiercely in this new ‘attention economy’ it may be difficult to force tech companies to give up this powerful tool (this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try though). For this reason, it’s my belief that we the users need to make being mindful about checking our first priority when we use our smartphones.

    I have developed two further tools that can help in your mission to keep searching and avoid checking. These are the PATH and ‘gathering leads’. Here is a short description of both:

    The PATH


    As a practical aid to remembering how to search and not check I suggest following the PATH

  • P - purposeful
  • A - active
  • T - typing
  • H - holistic

    Purposeful - Never unlock your phone or start up your PC unless you have a specific purpose or intention in mind

    Active - Never allow too much of the content you read/view to be selected/curated algorithmically. This means avoid ‘news feeds’

    Typing - Scrolling puts you in a passive position, typing in an active one. Type more!

    Holistic - Always try to integrate your digital life with your non-digital life

    If you stay on the PATH, this will lead you to success and freedom, searching more and checking less!

    The Hierarchy of Leads


  • In order to still search for content you are interested in you need to get leads from other sources that you can later follow up on using your PC or smartphone (kind of like a detective!)

  • Leads are things like interesting ideas, news, videos, songs, funny memes etc.

  • Getting leads from places other than your smartphone/internet significantly slows down your consumption of information

  • It also allows you time to mull over if you really want to follow up on that lead later on.

  • This mulling over is done in your head and not in front of a screen where clickbait and other enticing content stimulate our neurotransmitters (Dopamine) and make us weak

  • Getting leads also encourages social behaviour

  • The most basic and important source of leads is other people. Then comes radio/print material, magazines/tv and finally your PC/Smartphone.

  • Try to get most of your leads from people, far fewer from other sources, and none from your PC/Smartphone.

  • If you do end up getting a lead or idea from your smartphone or the internet more broadly, always pass the idea through another human in face to face conversation before following up on it.

    This approach has served me so unbelievably well! I hope you can implement it, or at least parts of it, in your life also.

    Always remember to distinguish searching and checking, do this by following the PATH, and slow down your consumption of content by gathering leads. Good Luck!!

    If you have further questions I have a full-length book written detailing my story and the approach outlined here called Checking Out: How Searching More and Checking Less Can Save You from Your Smartphone.
u/respect_fully · 11 pointsr/nosurf

I'm sorry you're going through this.

You are very, very harsh on yourself. This is understandable, because like many people coming from an abusive home, you probably weren't talked to with love and kindness, so you could never learn to talk to yourself in a gentle, kind, respectful, loving way. Being this harsh with oneself is a telltale symptom of deep emotional wounds that need to heal. Please don't beat yourself up so much. You have accomplished a LOT. You have quit an abusive home where you grew up. This in itself is already quite amazing. You are independent, you have a job (however shitty). You pay your bills. You have gotten help, medications you need to function at this moment, and you've managed to not drink for a YEAR so that these medications could work correctly. This is huge. You have the persistence to show up at an AA meeting every Friday despite how hard things are. And yes, you have a bit of an internet addiction problem, because hell, you need SOMETHING to dull the pain, and yeah, it sucks, but there are so many addictions which are much worse. I'm not saying you should condone your surfing problem, but do give credit where credit is due. I know you say you "hate yourself so fucking much" at this moment, but this can change. You're not hate material ! This hate, it's not yours. This comes from your troubled childhood ; these hating, harsh, unkind voices, are not yours : they are your abusers'. In order to improve your life, including the internet issue, there are wounds that need to heal. The best way I know of is with the help of a compassionate, competent therapist (shop around ! Not all therapists are like this, and it really pays to take the time to find one you feel truly comfortable with). If this is too expensive or overwhelming at the moment, there are a couple of books that come to mind which may help you look at yourself in a different, kinder way. "In the realm of hungry ghosts", an amazing book about addiction by Gabor Maté comes to mind, and also maybe "Finding your own North Star" by Martha Beck. I'm sure there are many others.

You are very frustrated with your life at this moment, but clearly you haven't given up. You haven't "accepted" this life as your future. You need a couple more skills to advance (mostly about learning to manage your emotions, in my opinion) but you're getting close. Take a little break on the harsh, insulting self-talk for a while (it's not working very well anyway, is it ? ;) and let your frustrated, wounded self breathe a bit while you figure all this out. Make a little truce with yourself, if you will. Honestly, I think it's not going to be easy, but you have a fair chance of healing and moving closer to the life you would like to live. Take things one step at a time. Best luck to you.

u/stdin_stdout_stderr · 1 pointr/nosurf

Hey Renee,

Just realized we met on the forum already! That's a wonderful dream. I'm a software engineer so I totally understand how important NoSurf philosophy is for both learning how to become a software engineer and for actually excelling as one once you're out of school. Wishing you the best of luck and will keep following along with your progress journal! It's a great read so far (:

P.S: Read two books that you might really like! The first is called Programmers At Work. The second is The Healthy Programmer. Both are great!

u/Aumira90 · 2 pointsr/nosurf

Lol I can definitely see why you think I'm a promoter - but I am not.. I mean.. Unofficially I am a huge fan of Allen Carr's method as it free'd me from Alcohol and Cigarettes in the past - so ya know, I'm super psyched about the method being applied to Tech. That's all though.

Anyhow yeah - looks like it's only available in UK and I somehow got it on the US store for Kindle by some weird miracle.

Audible:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Smart-Phone-Dumb-Phone-Audiobook/1839402326

UK Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WCQ6C42?ref=dbs_p2d_P_R_instant_delivery_T1

u/Teledogkun · 2 pointsr/nosurf

I recommend skipping the colors on the screen - go grayscale. Works pretty good for me, I'd definitely say I have felt a, although slight, relief in how much I'm "zucked" to my phone.

Here's a great read on this, the brain behind it is Tristan Harris. Amazing guy: he invented the concept of infinite scroll, now he works 100% with trying to get people less distracted. Love him.

u/terpkawa · 9 pointsr/nosurf

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-Quartz-Resin-Sport-Watch/dp/B001AWZDA4/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=casio+watch&qid=1557862168&s=gateway&sprefix=casio&sr=8-4

OK, so I paid $16, not $12. There are less and more expensive options, but this is the one I have and it’s perfect.

I get that a lot of those who workout like to use apps on their smart watch or phone during their sessions to track stuff...

I keep track of lifting progressions in a journal that I bring to the gym. The idea of being connected to the internet while working out makes me cringe.

So like someone said in the comments, I just chill in between sets and focus on my breathing I guess. I genuinely think you’ll do better at the gym without checking your phone sporadically through a session. Being disconnected just lets you focus on the exercise and nothing else.

u/K1tty_Purry · 1 pointr/nosurf

Well said, I agree with everything you say.


It irritates me that they use it and that I too, would once upon a time pull out my phone as well. Like you say I try not to blame them for it or bug them about it, nor do I dwell on it. I accept it and try to work around it. I’ve been reading and listening to audiobooks about acceptance, compassion and forgiveness and it’s really made me appreciate others. I’ve grown fond of The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. I’ve always been kind-hearted to others, but I really took this (audio) book to heart and it’s really helped.

I still mindlessly browse the web neglecting my end term paper, but I’ve slowly picked up the piano and some meditation and yoga (despite being shit at it). When it comes to socializing with others though they are given my full attention, I usually leave my phone on night mode and I’ll only hear the phone ringing or buzzing if a relative or close friends calls. Text messages and email is always silent, but I want to hear the phone ringing in case something has happened (like you I don’t have any social media).

u/Saihyou · 2 pointsr/nosurf

Yeah the concert I went to was filled with people holding up their phones recording instead of living in the moment. I know to some degree people did in the past too but it felt like a much larger ratio.


I really enjoy how Japanese concerts do things as there's often organized fan chants and waving around pen lights in patterns to the music instead of just holding up a phone.

u/Secreteus · 2 pointsr/nosurf

Reading books of course, it will greatly improve your ability to focus which has been really harmed by internet surfing. You may also work on improving some marketable skills, like programming, graphics design, etc., whatever you choose. To dive more into those topics I recommend you to read Cal Newport's books, especially Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, he also has interesting blog: calnewport.com/blog, old posts touch this topic in more depth. Another book that I would like to recommend you is The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains which will show you how damaging internet can be.

u/dspi77 · 2 pointsr/nosurf

I have a home phone. So the cellphone is for when I am driving or away from home. I keep it in the center console of my car and it has a limited plan (per minute, prepaid via H20 Wireless) that costs $10 every three months. Because I keep it in my car, a regular flip phone's battery doesn't stand a chance in the summer of heat of the Southeastern United States. I purchased this guy https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077X3RYJP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for $15 on Amazon. Powered off the battery will keep for quite a while. I turn it on when I need to make a caller. It's cheaper than a payphone.

As for internet addiction, mine is most definitely YouTube! I have it built into my TV, so it's not even something I need a laptop/smart phone for now. I will literally sit on the sofa and watch hours upon hours of YouTube.

For a lot of folks like myself YouTube = Internet.


And finally, for maps/direction, you can Google before leaving and jot down directions or just follow road signs. It's not as difficult as our post-GPS brains make it out to be. We survived years before these things. Also, stopping at a Gas Station and asking for directions never hurts! :)

u/one-sentence · 1 pointr/nosurf

I'm almost finished reading a new book on Adlerian psychology told in a very Zen way (teacher and student conversation) called The Courage To Be Disliked, and I am positive that r/nosurf, and you in particular, would find it very illuminating and helpful.

u/urb3000 · 4 pointsr/nosurf

Adam Alter is a marketing and psychology professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.

On Amazon you can read through the first couple of pages (hover over the book cover and click 'look inside').

Even the creators of these apps and devices recognize the potential for addiction. Steve Jobs for example, didn't let his kids use an iPad. The Instagram founder said "there's always another hashtag".

Even the presence of a smartphone without it being used, just it by itself sitting there is enough to disrupt sociability.

I really recommend reading the introduction to this book, it's free!

I'll start part one when I buy it!